COLUMBIA — State officials are largely remaining silent over the sudden firing of the state’s top election official less than two months before towns and cities across the state head to the polls Nov. 4.

S.C. Elections Commissioner Howard Knapp was let go Sept. 17 on a narrow, 3-2 vote by the commission’s board.

The move also comes as the state elections office is in the process of figuring out how to meet a demand by the federal Department of Justice to turn over key data on each of the state’s 3.3 million registered voters.

The elections commission itself has offered little beyond a statement from board Chairman Dennis Shedd — appointed to lead the body by Gov. Henry McMaster in 2024 — acknowledging the vote. He stated only that it was an expression of a “desire for new leadership” an

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